DRC is trying to keep Ebola with new medical tools among conflicts

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has another Ebola eruption, its tenth since the virus was identified for the first time in 1976. The latest eruption started in early August in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and mortality is 70 percent.

But this outbreak is very different from what destroyed West Africa a few years ago.

Experimental Treatments

Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health points to experimental treatments for those who have Ebola, a thing that did not exist during the outbreak of West Africa.

FIL – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, talks at an interview at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, December 19, 2017.

"We have five therapeutic agents available, three of which are available. they were actively used, "he said.

Cells in our blood, called B cells, fight infections. Two of the experimental treatments involved copies of antibodies from the B cells that could fight the Ebola virus.

"A person was infected with the Kikwit eruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo," said Fauci. "The person recovering from Ebola, and we brought this person to the United States at NIH. We pulled their blood. We cloned B cells and then we did the antibody."

The treatment is called monoclonal antibody 114. Fauci says that given to Ebola patients in DRC.

"So far, it has given at least 13 people, and 11 of them have been evicted from the hospital," he says, which is quite good odds.

Many people need to receive this treatment – and the other two – before we know if any of them actually work.

"We propose an attempt to compare treatment with another treatment to another treatment," says Fauci.

Another tool that a doctor has this time is a vaccine that protects People from Ebola. The vaccine was unavailable at the outbreak of West Africa.

WEEK: DRC tries to hold Ebola with new medical tools under conflict

Frozen Factors

But there are other factors in this outbreak that frustrates the efforts to control the Ebola virus:

The outbreak is in a conflict zone, so healthcare professionals can not reach anyone who needs treatment or a vaccine. [1 9659003] Some people in Butembo, with a population of more than 1 million, have contracted the Ebola virus.

The outbreak is near Rwanda and Uganda, and people travel back and forth between countries to sell and trade goods, so they can also spread Ebola.

Despite medical progress, the fall continues to rise, but not as fast as they did in West Africa. Nevertheless, this Fauci and others have a lot of concern.